Hyundai mulls second car plant in India, location undisclosed

Hyundai Motors is facing stiff competition from other automakers in India, such as Honda Cars, and Maruti Suzuki. In order to keep their competitive edge, they have plansÂ to enter segments where they do not have a presence as on date. This means, launch of new cars every year.

Hyundai Motors current plant in Chennai is working to capacity with production currently at 6.8 lakh units which can only be stretched to just over 7 lakh units. Hyundai Motors has already cut down on exports from the Chennai plant, while completely discontinuing exports to Europe which are being catered to from the company plants in Czech Republic and Turkey. The Chennai plant in the meanwhile will concentrate on domestic requirements.

But with new car launches every, the demand is set to go up surely, which will require Hyundai India to set up a new manufacturing plant. It is now revealed that Hyundai has started planning for their second plant,Â though company has not disclosed any official information or location. Gujarat could definitely be a favoured destination with other automakers such as Tata Motors, Ford and Maruti Suzuki already having set up shop in the region.

Company spokespersons have declined from giving any indications on the location of the upcoming plant but reiterated that they have the capacity to construct a factory at a quick pace once final decisions are taken. Speaking of upcoming new models in the SUV and MPV categories, the company has invested heavily at the R&D Center in Hyderabad for this purpose with investments of INR 1,600 crores on the development of new models. Hyundai India has already begun testing of their compact SUV in India, which was spied earlier.